Over the past few years, community pharmacists have faced a number of cuts or/and other enforced changes that have created challenges for running a pharmacy.

The good news is that  PSNC has confirmed that the pharmacy funding for 2019/2020 will be maintained at £2.59bn, instead of the previously mooted cut of £33 million to £2.26bn. The bad news is that the single activity fee was reduced from £1.29 to £1.26 in November 2018 and the Category M prices have been reduced by £10m per month between November 2018 and March 2019.

All of this is happening against the backdrop of the new  Falsified Medicines Directive (FMD) and growing uncertainty over the additional challenges that Brexit may pose to pharmacists.

This is the difficult environment facing pharmacy owners who are still trying to run profitable businesses; while continuing to manage their staff and provide the best care to their patients.

When all operating costs are increasing it is no surprise, that more and more pharmacy owners are looking at ways to maximise profitability in the current climate. RxWeb is a key tool that helps our users to streamline their processes and cut their costs. In particular, our customers have embraced some of the following features of RxWeb to positively impact their bottom line.

1. Embrace the digital era and technology advancements

We live in an age where technology is constantly evolving and where consumers rely on it every single day. The likes of Google, YouTube, LinkedIn and other social media channels allow provide platforms that enable businesses to engage with their customers and provide them with useful information.

Pharmacy owners need to consider how they can use the internet and the power of technology to their best advantage. This could be by investing in dispensing robots, promoting your services through a Twitter or LinkedIn page, sending SMS messages to customers or using a web-based PMR system. There are lots of different options and RxWeb can help you to get started by harnessing the power of the internet to run your pharmacy.

2. Drive efficient and dispensing processes

The FMD has introduced an additional element to the dispensing process where all medication packs have to be scanned and visually checked. It has never been more important for all the processes within a pharmacy to run efficiently and to eliminate any potential customer service bottlenecks.

Spend time analysing your current processes, review them and identify how you can save time, resources and money to help you run at optimal level. RxWeb can help to ensure that every area of your pharmacy is operating at peak performance to make sure that you benefit from time, resource and cost savings generated by increased efficiencies.

3. Provide excellent customer experiences

There are currently 12,000 pharmacies in England, why should a patient choose your pharmacy over one of the other 11,999? Providing patients with an exceptional, friendly and personable service is a great way to build loyalty ensuring they return time after time.

RxWeb enables you to take an extra step and contact your patients via text message. You can use this feature to notify them to collect their prescription and to provide them with additional clinical services. Pharmacists should also encourage patients to nominate you as their pharmacy with their GP – this will make the prescription process easier for them and they will appreciate anything you can do to help them out.

In summary, it is definitely a difficult environment for pharmacists and pharmacies at the moment. However, RxWeb can help by creating a solid and stable foundation to run your pharmacy from. If your PMR system runs smoothly you can dedicate greater attention to other areas of your business and work towards greater profitability. If you would like to learn more about how RxWeb can help please contact us today to arrange a demo.